HOUSTON, Dec. 6, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- W&T Offshore, Inc. (NYSE: WTI) today announced a sub-salt oil discovery at the "Dantzler" exploration prospect in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico.  The well is located on Mississippi Canyon block 782 in 6,580 feet of water and was drilled to a total depth of 19,234 feet.  Wireline logging data indicates approximately 120 feet of net pay in two high-quality Miocene reservoirs which are primarily crude oil.  W&T Offshore holds a 20% working interest in this well, which is operated by Noble Energy, Inc.

The Dantzler discovery is located roughly 12 miles west of W&T's previous discoveries at Big Bend and Troubadour in the Mississippi Canyon 698 and 699 blocks.  The operator has  provided discovered gross resource⁽¹⁾ estimates at Dantzler of between 55 and 95 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Tracy W. Krohn, W&T Offshore's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "The discovery at Dantzler continues our string of successful deepwater exploration projects and provides us with  another impact discovery to grow both our reserves and production in the Gulf of Mexico."

(1)  Range of resource estimate based on 75th and 25th percentile probabilities.

About W&T Offshore

W&T Offshore, Inc. is an independent oil and natural gas producer with operations offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and onshore in both the Permian Basin of West Texas and in East Texas.  We have grown through acquisitions, exploration and development and currently hold working interests in approximately 71 offshore fields in federal and state waters (65 producing and six fields capable of producing).  W&T currently has under lease over 1.4 million gross acres including over 710,000 gross acres on the Gulf of Mexico Shelf, over 480,000 gross acres in the deepwater and over 220,000 gross acres onshore in Texas. A substantial majority of our daily production is derived from wells we operate offshore.  For more information on W&T Offshore, please visit our website at www.wtoffshore.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to future events, based on what we believe are reasonable assumptions. No assurance can be given, however, that these events will occur. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially including, among other things, market conditions, oil and gas price volatility, uncertainties inherent in oil and gas production operations and estimating reserves, unexpected future capital expenditures, competition, the success of our risk management activities, governmental regulations, uncertainties and other factors discussed in W&T Offshore's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 and on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2013 found at www.sec.gov or at our website at www.wtoffshore.com under the Investor Relations section.

The Securities and Exchange Commission requires oil and gas companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose proved reserves that a company has demonstrated by actual production or conclusive formation tests to be economically and legally producible under existing economic and operating conditions. The SEC permits the optional disclosure of probable and possible reserves, however, we have not disclosed the Company's probable and possible reserves in our filings with the SEC. We use certain terms in this news release, such as "gross resources." This estimate is by its nature more speculative than estimates of proved, probable and possible reserves and accordingly are subject to substantially greater risk of being actually realized. The SEC guidelines strictly prohibit us from including these estimates in filings with the SEC. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosures and risk factors in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and in other reports on file with the SEC, available from our website at www.wtoffshore.com.

SOURCE W&T Offshore, Inc.